Page 39 of Taking Jenny (Planet Orhon #4)

Tiger

D iscord snatched my arm, yanking me back just as I was about to sprint between the trees toward Jenny’s path.

“She cannot know we’re here,” she hissed in a low voice.

I spun around to face her, heat rising up my neck. “Why the hell not?”

“If she knows we’re here, she won’t fight as hard. If she doesn’t fight as hard, the hunters will sense something is wrong. If they know something is wrong—”

“Then we’re all dead,” I finished for her. I sank back onto my heels, feeling helpless and deflated. “I just want her to know she’s not alone out here.”

“You’ll get her killed. You’ll get us killed. She must believe she’s alone,” Discord said adamantly. “It is the only way to save her. And ourselves.”

My gut told me Discord was right, but my chest ached with the need to reassure Jenny that she wasn’t alone and everything would be alright.

But I couldn’t lie to her like that. Not now.

Not ever. This was Illiapol, and I didn’t know what was coming.

None of us did. And I doubted that any of it would be alright by the end of the trial.

I exhaled a slow, heavy breath, trying to keep my control from unraveling.

Discord said, “Let’s get the lantern out of the tent.”

“On it.” I dropped to a crouch and stayed low as I crept toward the trap. Jenny hadn’t glanced back, but I moved as if she might because Discord was right about us needing to remain covert.

We had purposefully lit up the tent trap to make its true nature obvious, and I was glad to see that Jenny was too smart to fall for the ruse.

As soon as I’d seen it, I’d wanted to destroy the tent, but Discord had stopped me because if I aimed to ruin all their traps, again, the hunters would be suspicious.

Discord joined me, holding my right hand to keep me steady as I leaned into the tent for the lantern.

Beneath the propped tent was a pit twice as deep as Jenny’s height.

I could have climbed out of it had I fallen in, but that would have taken too much time, and the hunters would not expect Jenny to be able to climb up a pit like that, so they would have known something was amiss.

Every thought we had, every move we made required factoring them in, and I resented it all.

The lantern handle was just in my grasp when Discord hissed, “Hurry up!”

“Just a little bit more—got it.” I pulled the lantern back with me and turned it off. It was small enough to fit in my rucksack, alongside all the other supplies they had packed. “We made that trap obvious enough, but do you really think she’s foolish enough to fall for any of them?”

“I am here because I do not believe she is foolish.” Discord’s tone softened a fraction.

“Jenny is many things, but foolish is not one of them. However, when we are thirsty, tired, hungry, uncomfortable, or in pain, we tend to make bad choices. Even I am guilty of that myself from time to time, and I know better. So if we make the traps as obvious as possible, hopefully she will continue to avoid them. Let’s go. ”

I sighed as I followed her. “A pity we couldn’t take the onworlder here.”

She gave a short laugh. “Indeed.”

We had parked the onworlder on the far side of the mountain to keep our tracks clean, then hiked our way up through the brush.

It had been easy enough for us with our long legs and fast strides, but Jenny’s short human body couldn’t cover that kind of ground nearly as fast. Even with her head start, it had taken us only minutes to get ahead of her again.

I glanced at Discord as we moved. I didn’t know the full plan, and every part of me hated being excluded. “Where did Longshot go off to?”

“I told you,” she said, her pace never slowing. “He has a different mission.”

“Why can’t I know the whole plan?” I asked, unable to keep the annoyance out of my voice.

She huffed irritably. “I know you care for Jenny and Mal, Tiger, but we don’t know you.

We’ve spent all our time training her , which means you are a wildcard.

We don’t know how you would stand up to an interrogation and given the rumors of the palace as of late, we don’t know what kind of interrogation you would face, so we couldn’t even pretend to prepare you for it, especially now.

At this moment, the less you know, the safer we all are. ”

That landed like a punch to my gut. “And you and Longshot and Surge, you’re all what? Experts at being interrogated?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time for any of us,” she said evenly. “But I would not describe us as experts. Only Mal can claim such a thing.”

My brow furrowed. “He’s been interrogated before?”

“Many times. By many people.” She reached forward to push a low hanging branch out of my way.

I ducked beneath it and asked, “Why?”

“The first time we know of was when he was found as a boy. It was suspected that he could be a plant, a spy. So, at twelve years old, he was grilled for three days by the palace executioner. Under penalty of death.”

“But, I thought he didn’t remember anything before he was found.”

She hopped over a log and I followed suit. “He didn’t. When the executioner found nothing, he was taken to a magician. There, he faced…worse things.”

My stomach twisted. “What’s worse than an executioner questioning a child?”

“I am sure you have heard the stories of what magicians can do, Tiger,” she said with a long suffering sigh. “Do you really want me to elaborate?”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t think I do.”

“Precisely. After he was found to be trustworthy and taken in as Justice’s ward, he sought those men out and asked them to teach him what they knew. He does not have a talent for magic, but his apprenticeship with the executioner proved invaluable. That’s why he’s survived as along as he has.”

I didn’t know what to say. In the beginning, Mal had been distant. Cold, even. I figured it was his personality, some mix of trauma and pride. But this…this was different. This was something carved into him by force.

“Is Mal the palace’s executioner now, Discord?” It was a question nobody had yet to answer.

“Remember how I told you the less you know, the safer we all are?”

I groaned and rubbed a hand down my face. “Yes.”

Just like everyone else I’d asked, she didn’t elaborate or answer my question, just kept walking through the brush to our next destination.

A frustrated growl escaped me. “I’m taking a lot on faith here.”

“And I appreciate your faith, Tiger.” Her tone was sincere, but devoid of further explanation.

I decided to try a different tactic. “You also said we can’t attack the hunters, and I’m still wondering why not.”

She gave me a sharp look. “If we attack the hunters to protect her, then it will be obvious forensically. If we must defend ourselves, then we must make it look like she killed them. Since all Jenny has is a damned staff and a fucking leather bag, we will have to use sticks and rocks to defend ourselves. And if the hunters are on their feet, we will have to crouch low and adjust our strength before attacking them, otherwise it will look like someone our height and with Ladrian strength attacked them. With any luck, we will not need to use such maneuvers.”

“Got it.” My jaw clenched. I hate this. I hate this so much. “That clearing up there. Think it’s a good spot for the supplies?”

She considered my suggestion for a moment. “Not too obvious from the path, not too far either. Exactly something the palace would use for a legitimate supply drop. Good eye.”

Longshot, Discord, and Surge had swiped a variety of items from the ball the previous evening, so they would have palace supplies for Jenny. Items that were not from the palace would have been viewed as evidence of cheating. I hadn’t thought of such a thing, so I was grateful they had.

We set a small bowl on a log, and she filled it with water from her canteen, added a couple pieces of fruit, nothing fancy. The few other supply drops weren’t extravagant, so no one would mistake ours for what it was. Once we finished, we heard footsteps. Silently, we dashed into the underbrush.

Jenny, faster than we had expected. She strode up the path, nearly passing our supplies up. I was worried she would miss them, but Discord shone a light against the water, just enough to be mistaken for moonslight glinting off the surface.

Jenny noticed it. First, she looked around for a trap, anything obvious.

Then cautiously, she approached the log.

She nudged the ground nearby with her staff, then waved the wooden stick over the log, like she was looking for a tripwire.

When nothing happened, she walked up to the supply log.

But before she drank the water, she touched it with her little finger and rubbed that finger on her bottom lip, waiting.

Discord whispered proudly, “Good girl.”

Jenny waited for a minute, then smiled and wiped her lip with her sleeve. She drank greedily from her leather bag, then dumped the rest and replaced it with the water from the bowl. Then she ate a piece of fruit, as she stowed the other two in her pockets and got back onto the winding trail.

I was utterly confused. When she was far down the path and out of hearing distance, I asked Discord, “What was the lip thing about? She already had water. Why did she dump hers?”

“Because not all supplies are food,” she said in a sly tone, clearly having taut Jenny something I didn’t understand. “Come on, we need to keep going. Oh, one more thing. Your friend Summer is fine.”

“What?” I asked in shock. “Really?”

She nodded. “He had been sent to work in the fields of Grenevar, so I made a call to some friends of mine who grow my coffee there and got him an easy gig working in one of their offices until we can get all this Illiapol nonsense settled. After we save Jenny, I thought you might be able to get him to some other planet where he will be safe. I know you make runs with Jac all over the universe and Summer is not a high priority for Justice, so he won’t be hunted—”

I tightly hugged her, and she instantly stiffened up. Grateful and overjoyed by the news, I couldn’t not hug her for helping Summer. I let go and blurted, “Sorry, sorry. I know you’re not the most demonstrative—”

Discord flicked her hand upward to shut me up. “Show me your gratitude by not getting us killed out here, Tiger.”

I nodded and grinned. “I’ll do my best.”